The shooting occurred last Wednesday evening in the Dair village, a suburb of Muharraq, during a police crackdown on protesters. The boy was hit by birdshot, activists said.

The young boy was then transferred to the Salmaniya Hospital for treatment, and doctors are still waiting to see whether the boy will lose his eyesight in the eye.

The ABNA news agency reported the father said his son was conscious, but could not see out of his injured eye.

Activists who were with the child in the hospital said that they were banned from speaking to the child’s father about the incident after the instructions of officer Yousef Mulla Bkheit “who is renowned for his torturing of the prisoners and assaulting them sexually,” the report said.

The activists said that the family wanted to take the child to a private hospital, however, officer Bkheit refused. They said that the father’s body was full of bird shots pellets as well. They reported that police told him to move otherwise they would fire at him, when he turned to carry his child they fired on both of them.

The man who was still in shock said: “It didn’t occur to me they would fire at an old man and his little child, we were only selling fish.”

He confirmed that they fired on them on purpose. They fired twice at them. The activists said that the father’s and child’s blood covered their fish box where they were selling fish at the side of the road.

The activists said the boy Ahmed Nahham was the youngest citizen whose eyes were fired at.

Wefaq society, a leading opposition group, called on human rights organizations and groups to save Ahmed Nahham five-year old boy who was targeted by Bahrain police by bird gunshots along with his injured father who was with him during the incident.

Wefaq statement explained that Ahmed was from Dair village that suffered the savage barbaric attack waged by the police. It added that police carried Ahmed away with them, nobody knew about his injury.

Bahrain had a chance to correct a grave injustice and set the country on a better path by dismissing specious cases against 20 Shiite doctors convicted last year after they treated protesters injured during the popular uprising against the Sunni-led monarchy. Instead, the High Criminal Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the convictions of nine of them and imposed sentences of up to five years in jail. And 15-year sentences against two other doctors, who have fled the country, were upheld: here.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) publishes their second edition of the post Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report, a report on the ongoing human rights violations in Bahrain since March 26th 2012: here.

Meaningful human rights reform in Bahrain appears as distant as ever, despite the regime’s repeated promises. The disconnect between its actions and its words is baffling. Perhaps the regime could clear up the confusion by explaining its approach on human rights. It could begin with these five simple questions: here.

5 thoughts on “Bahrain dictatorship news update”

NUWAIDRAT, Bahrain — Volunteers slowly rebuilding a new mosque from the wreckage of its 950-year-old predecessor in Bahrain have two tasks: One group works while others watch for a return of security forces who drove bulldozers through its walls last year.

In Bahrain’s fractured society — with 16 months of nonstop clashes and tensions between the Sunni monarchy and protesters from the kingdom’s Shiite majority — even relaying bricks from a toppled mosque wall can be viewed as a politically charged act.

“I was born here and will die on this land,” said Mohammed Jaffer, a 17-year-old student who was among the ad hoc crews this week working at the Imam Hadi Mosque in the central Bahraini town of Nuwaidrat. “We deserve to fight for our dignity and not live as a slave in a feudal state.”

The demolition of dozens of Shiite mosques and other religious gathering places remains one of the most sensitive issues amid an array of grievances by Bahrain’s Shiites, who claim they are relegated to second-class status by the Western-backed Sunni dynasty. Their current uprising, which began in February 2011 and was inspired by the Arab Spring, has hardened into a showdown over the legitimacy of the ruling system that has left the island nation deeply divided.

The latest blow came Thursday with a court sentencing nine doctors and nurses to prison for up to five years after being convicted in a retrial of aiding the protests. Fifteen-year sentences also were upheld on two doctors who fled Bahrain.

Michael Posner, assistant U.S. secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, told reporters in Bahrain’s capital Manama that Washington was “deeply disappointed” by the convictions and urged all sides to find ways to open dialogue or risk even more unrest in the strategic nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

“Dialogue has never been more urgent, as polarization in Bahrain society increases and the social fabric becomes more frayed,” he said.

On Friday, Bahrain’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Hassan, said “highly explosive” bomb-making material was uncovered in raids on several locations. Several bombings in the past month have injured security forces.

Bahrain’s leaders have offered a range of concessions, including giving more powers to the elected parliament, but Shiite groups say it falls short of demands for the monarchy to give up its near total control of government power and appointments.

The ruined Shiite mosques across Bahrain also symbolize some of the core perceptions that make Bahrain one of the most diplomatically complex Middle East flashpoints for the West.

Bahrain’s leadership claims that Shiite power Iran is encouraging the challenges to its authority. Also on Bahrain’s side are all the Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, which sent in troops to aid the Bahraini monarchy last year and now backs a proposals for even closer union.

Although there is no direct evidence of Iranian involvement in Bahrain, it’s a potential threat that resonates deeply with the West. The U.S. and allies also are cautious not to unsettle their critical relations in the Gulf by pushing too hard over Bahrain, where more than 50 people have died in the unrest.